Hydrides are in a class of reactive chemicals that convert water into hydrogen by reacting with the oxygen to form a benign byproduct; hence they are regarded as a medium for storing hydrogen for fuel cells. Because of their relatively high production cost, hydrides will likely be applied in situations where their potential benefits of high hydrogen production per unit weight or unit volume are more important than their production cost. Hydrides are quite stable to degradation over long periods of time provided they are kept dry. Therefore, they have the potential for use in applications where they can be stored for extended periods at ambient temperature and pressure and then processed to supply hydrogen on demand. They are particularly applicable to small-scale fuel cells as replacements for batteries.
A key to a successful compact device for on-demand hydrogen production is the ability to process the reactive chemicals in a safe manner. It would be particularly beneficial to perform the hydrolysis in a compact device that uses a dry chemical hydride as the feed to a reactor.